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Angry RPI activists disrupt traffic in Bombay

Traffic on the Eastern Express Highway in Bombay was held up for several hours today after hundreds of Republican Party of India activists pelted stones on passing vehicles near Ramabai Colony. They were protesting against desecration of a statue of Ambedkar in Powai on Wednesday.

Eleven people were killed in Ramabai Nagar in 1997 when police opened fire on an angry mob protesting against the desecration of an Ambedkar idol in the colony.

"The situation is similar but it has been brought under control," Additional Commissioner of Police (north-east region) Ramarao Ghadge, who served in the same post in 1997, said.

Train services on the harbour section of the Central Railway too were suspended at around 9.15 am after hundreds of RPI activists squatted on the tracks. Services resumed at 10.15 am after police dispersed the workers.

A Shiv Sena shakha was ransacked and a Sena office attacked as thousands of policemen in riot gear scrambled to contain the violence.

Trouble started at around 8.30 am this morning when more than 700 RPI activists, including women, gathered near Ambedkar's bust at the entrance of Ramabai colony. Even before the leaders could address the angry gathering a large mob rushed onto the adjoining highway and began pelting stones at passing vehicles.

The situation was tense in the morning as hundreds of boys, barely in their teens suddenly emerged in groups and resorted to heavy stone pelting and later disappeared into the narrow bylanes of the colony.

Four BEST buses and several private vehicles were damaged in the morning. Rioters tried to torch a BEST bus too, but succeeded only in burning seat cushions, Ghadge said.

Traffic on the highway was finally restored around 1 pm when three additional State Reserve Police platoons were deployed to contain the situation. However, sporadic incidents of stone throwing continued till late in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, tension still prevails in Powai where the Ambedkar statue was desecrated. According to residents of the hutment colony where the incident took place, the bust was being guarded by shifts of two policemen each since the Ramabai Nagar incident of 1997. The desecration had occurred in a break between the two shifts.

Minister of State for Home Kripashankar Singh and Transport Minister Gangadhar Gade accompanied by police commissioner Ronnie Mendonca visited both the Phule colony and the Ramabai Nagar in the evening.

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